Slowing of axonal regeneration is correlated with increased axonal viscosity during aging

BMC Neuroscience

Research Article

Matthew R O'Toole¹  Steven R Heidemann²  Kyle E Miller³  Phillip L Lamoureux³ 

[1] Department of Mathematics, Michigan State University, 48824-1115, East Lansing, MI, USA;Department of Physiology, Michigan State University, 48824-3320, East Lansing, MI, USA;Department of Zoology, Michigan State University, 48824-1115, East Lansing, MI, USA;

关键词: Sensory Neuron;    Growth Cone;    Force Generation;    Axonal Regeneration;    Axonal Diameter;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2202-11-140

 received in 2010-06-01, accepted in 2010-10-25,  发布年份 2010

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundAs we age, the speed of axonal regeneration declines. At the biophysical level, why this occurs is not well understood.ResultsTo investigate we first measured the rate of axonal elongation of sensory neurons cultured from neonatal and adult rats. We found that neonatal axons grew 40% faster than adult axons (11.5 µm/hour vs. 8.2 µm/hour). To determine how the mechanical properties of axons change during maturation, we used force calibrated towing needles to measure the viscosity (stiffness) and strength of substrate adhesion of neonatal and adult sensory axons. We found no significant difference in the strength of adhesions, but did find that adult axons were 3 times intrinsically stiffer than neonatal axons.ConclusionsTaken together, our results suggest decreasing axonal stiffness may be part of an effective strategy to accelerate the regeneration of axons in the adult peripheral nervous system.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Lamoureux et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2010. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.